Part of my problem was that the middle of the class felt a little weak on the investigative side, hence trying to split the 6/8 benefits. Taking you suggestion, the double roll skill is based on the pairing they don't take at 1st level: while it puts a crimp in trying to make the 2nd roll a crit, I think it's justified in strengthening the aspect they otherwise neglected and evening things out a bit.

I think I planned on making a second tier ability that allowed you to ready adjacent weapons as a free action as well as grant a disarm trick tha let you disassemble/break/unload a weapon instead of forcing the person to relinquish it

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I am not entirely happy with the level-based restriction on Uncompromising Victory. Its just not quite in keeping with Mastercraft (mission level based behavior is much, much rarer there).

Having decided to base the gamebreaker around Parry, I went back and integrated the trick further in the structure of the class by bumping the Intimidate prereq down to 4 ranks and adding the Parry trick.

Also as a result of using Parry as part of the class ability structure I changed the Reflex and Legend progressions from medium to fast/slow respectively, making them quicker but less well known which to my mind plays nicely to the secret police aspect of the source material.

Given the recent discussion concerning the Parry trick, I've added Lightning Reflexes as a logical prerequisite for the class and allowed for Wisdom modifier instances of substitution of Defence score for Reflex save bonus in the game breaker.

So, just rewatched the movie. Dear me but it could have used at least another draft.

Anyhow, one of the things that really struck me was how absurdly close-ranged virtually all of Preston's fights were.

Deathdealer I: At Level 2, you gain the Cleave Basics feat. You also gain a trick.Deathdealer (1h-ranged weapon trick): Your attack is made as a melee attack utilising your Wisdom modifier with a Reach equal to your starting action dice.Deathdealer II: At Level 7, you gain the Cleave Mastery feat. Additionally, your Deathdealer trick may be applied to any personal ranged weapon, and the reach of the attack becomes equal to your class level.

I think I still prefer the current version of the ability, but that was the first thought that came to me given the discussion on the cleave chain elsewhere.

I took levels in Sweeper with the samurai that I made for Gatac's game. The samurai was original built as Sense Motive/Sword chain monster, but in the mean time has picked up Martial Arts as well and went to Wisdom 20. I assume it is 'use Wisdom modifier instead of Strength modifier'?

I think Deathdealer I may be a bit much, then. My character was already great at wiping out hordes of mooks before. Now it looks like he could clear an area with a radius equal to his AD of mooks every turn.

Not so much; in either iteration, Cleave I just gives you a single extra attack per roud provided you've killed someone and by making the ranged option a trick it limits you being able to get ridicuously silly with the damage output.

And given the spiel they give about the gun kata training making the gun an "extension of the body", it feels appropriate giving the sweeper the ability to treat it as such. The other option based on that line of thought is to make a ranged attack within a certain radious equivalent to a natural attack...

Anyhow, one of the things that really struck me was how absurdly close-ranged virtually all of Preston's fights were.

Very true. And a good inspiration for shaving off power without losing the cool.

A few more tweaks just to smooth it off.

Deathdealer I: At Level 2, you gain the Cleave Basics feat. You also gain a trick.Extension of the Shooter (melee attack trick): Use a readied ranged weapon to make this melee attack, adding your Wisdom modifier to the attack check (instead of Strength or Dexterity). This attack has a reach of 3 and expends 1 shot per target.Deathdealer II: At Level 7, you gain the Cleave Mastery feat. Additionally, your Extension of the Shooter trick has a reach of 6.

That makes me quite happy. Very neat and elegant. But itching at my brain is the notion thar logically Extension really should be a stance.

Extension of the Shooter (Gun Kata Stance): You may use a readied ranged weapon to make a melee attack, adding your Wisdom modifier to the attack check (instead of Strength or Dexterity). This attack has a reach equal to your Sweeper class reflex bonus and expends 1 shot per target. Ranged attacks made outside your reach have advantage against you.

Not so much; in either iteration, Cleave I just gives you a single extra attack per roud provided you've killed someone and by making the ranged option a trick it limits you being able to get ridicuously silly with the damage output.

And given the spiel they give about the gun kata training making the gun an "extension of the body", it feels appropriate giving the sweeper the ability to treat it as such. The other option based on that line of thought is to make a ranged attack within a certain radious equivalent to a natural attack...

Just because the class only provides Cleave Mastery at higher doesn't mean you can't take it early, so what this version of Deathdealer does is essentially extend attack range. What I'd do is use the Think Ahead trick to clear everything in range 1, and then switch to Deathdealer I. With the Wis bonus adding +5 to my attack, I can use All-out Attack and still have a sufficient damage output to have good odds of wiping the everything else in reach as well.

Requiring the attack to be a done with a ranged weapon is a better idea, IMO.